[singlepic id=720 w=320 h=240 float=left] You may remember back in September, many Netflix members were complaining about a new error code they were receiving, N8107-154-5006, which apparently is the error code for too many streams running at a time. (Which for subscribers of the “unlimited” streaming plan, says 1.) I say apparently because to put that code into Netflix.com help, you get no answer other than them telling you that you must have entered the code incorrectly. Back in September, amidst a customer uproar, Netflix responded that it was a mistake, that they do allow concurrent streams, and it was just an error on their part.
Not anymore.
Netflix in the last couple days has now decided the one single stream at the $7.99 price was a good idea. I had been receiving the error for the last two nights, and decided to call them up and ask if it’s an error again. A very nice gentleman named Thomas at their customer service desk tells me no, that the limit is now one stream at a time. I asked if there was another streaming plan that I could upgrade to that would allow me to have streaming on 2 or 3 devices at a time and was told that they do not have that option, however if I wanted to add a DVD plan, I could get more streams. Hence 2 DVDs at a time would give me two streams. 3 DVDs out, 3 streams… you get the picture.
Really Netflix? Is this a wise decision on your part? I personally think not. Type in Netflix in Google News and all you see nowadays is “Netflix drops in Customer satisfaction” and “Netflix paying for it’s mistakes” and “Netflix losing customers” and so on. So… were they sitting in the board room thinking “Hey, I know! Let’s limit the streams our customers get! That ought to raise the satisfaction levels!” Or were they thinking this move might get people back to pay their DVD subscriptions, just to get more streams? I have no idea what exactly they were thinking, but it seems they were more likely NOT thinking. Hey, maybe the CEO just doesn’t want the hassles of the daily grind anymore and is ready to run the business into the ground. Who knows. Maybe he is being bought off by the big boys to kill his own creation.
Whatever the case may be, doubling the price for the streaming/DVD plan, separating the streaming and DVD service, changing their mind on that separation, then limiting the streaming to one stream at a time pretty much killed it for me. Amazon has many of the same movies on their Prime Membership already, so I guess Netflix can do without my $7.99 per month.
What do you think about the new “One stream at a time” service? For those of you on just the streaming plan, will you keep Netflix?